Chapter 73

Alcina’s mother, Duchess Clair, raises the suggestion that they do not go after Lord Brendan at all.

Given the magnitude of manpower and resources it would take to breach Duke Elton’s castle, particularly given his alliance with Duke Cedric - it is not justifiable, she says, that they should pursue what could very likely be a “fruitless endeavor.”

It falls upon the table like a heavy condemnation, though not a single person can claim that the thought had not crossed their minds even briefly.

After all, war cannot be fought on emotions and sentiment alone.

It must be fought on the battlefield, with human lives and bloodshed, and innocent deaths.

War demands of people, then, to quantify qualitative data to use such phrases as the greater good and justifiable risks.

It asks of people to set aside that instinctive human nature to value the individual over all else, the kind of impulse that characterizes mankind in his desire to sacrifice hundreds for the life of one beloved person.

Each p